POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - There's an entire Wikipedia page with 634 listed sources just about COVID-19 misinformation.

The spreading of false information was already an issue before the pandemic, but now it's become a big problem for public health.

In all the planning that weve done for a pandemic of some sort, we didnt really factor in the influence of social media and how much misinformation would be circulating on social media, said Southeastern Idaho Public Health district director Maggie Mann.

Bogus research is being disguised as legitimate findings by physicians in order to influence public policy, and now social media giants are taking down the fake news.

Maygan Layson, who has her master's degree in public health education from Walden University, created the Pocatello CoVid 19 Community Support Facebook group back in March. She wanted to provide a place for locals to get accurate information and resources during the pandemic.

After a debunked conspiracy video was shared on her page, she spent an hour and a half researching the claims in the video and the source's reliability. She found no other research to support the information and took the post down.

Because I wanted it to be accurate. I really really considered everything those doctors had to say. I researched it, I looked for scholarly articles that would support or negate their claims, Layson said.

Public health officials wish more people would do their own research when they see coronavirus news.

If youre just seeing something thats being shared by a friend on social media, or even something that sounds like a professional organization but maybe dont have a ton of credibility, I would be very leery of buying into things that are being promoted by that type of organization, Mann said.

Now more than ever, public health officials are having to fact check false information.

People have sent us questions about things theyve heard on the internet, and theyre very sincere in wondering what theyre hearing is accurate, Mann said.

But with so much information--much of it changing because of how new COVID-19 is--it's hard for people to weed through the news.

Mann suggests reading and watching media with a critical eye, like Layson.

You research those (claims), you dont just take it on their account. You go find the scholarly articles that theyre saying this research is based on, Layson said.

Here are some tips to be more critical in your news consumption:

Here is the original post:

COVID-19 fake news: how to spot it and what locals are doing to stop it - LocalNews8.com